The first ch 2 of each round counts as the first st Hold 4 strands together
If you are using one color to make this basket, you will not need to join each rnd of the body of the basket. Continue working sc in a continuous spiral eliminating the seam.
You will work two rows of each of the colors except for the bottom and the last three rounds.

Pattern

With Black (4 strands together)

Ch 3

Rnd 1: 7 hdc in 3rd ch from hook. Join with sl st (8 hdc)

Rnd 2: 2 hdc in each st. Join with sl st. (16 hdc)

Rnd 3: Ch 2, hdc in same st, hdc in next st, (2 hdc in next st, hdc in next st) around. Join with sl st. (24 hdc)

Rnd 4: Ch 2, hdc in same st, hdc in next 2 sts, (2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 2 sts) around. Join with sl st. (32 hdc)

Rnd 5: Ch 2, hdc in same st, hdc in next 3 sts, (2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 3 sts) around. Join with sl st. (40 hdc)

Rnd 6: Ch 2, hdc in same st, hdc in next 4 sts, (2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 4 sts) around. Join with sl st. (48 hdc)

The next round will be the first row of the body of the basket. You will be working into the back of each hdc.

Rnd 10: Ch 1, sc under the line or ridge on the back of the first st of previous round. (Hdc have a line or ridge on the back of the stitch). You will be working under this line or ridge, not into the regular loops.

This will leave the two loops of the stitch

creating a seam separating the bottom and the sides of the basket. Continue working sc around. Join with sl st.

Rnd 11: Ch 1, sc in same st and each st around. Join and finish off.

Rnd 12: With dark grey, sc in each st around. Join.

Rnd 13: Sc in each st around. Join and finish off.

Rnd 14-25: Repeat rounds 12-13.

Rnd 26: With mustard yellow (or the last color of choice), sc in each st around. Join.

203 comments:

I'm currently working on this pattern and I've made it to round 12 and mine is pretty floppy. Yours looks really sturdy! Is there a trick? I'm using Patons Classic Wool (maybe that's the issue?) in a medium weight with 4 strands. It's not a big deal, just that yours looks so awesome!

Hey! I also make baskets and one trick you can do when your DONE is to starch them. Find a way to hold them up and spray with starch water and let sit. This firms them up and makes em sturdy. And if it wears out you can always do it again!

I have been looking for ages for a basket that I could keep in my living room for my yarn and haven't had any luck... I resorted to using an old Easter basket I found in storage... I will be making one of these soon! Probably in various shades of turquoise (I'm obsessed), navy blue, and grey.

Congrats on the new job! You need to update your profile now, to say that you are again employed ;) Also I cannot wait to make one of these! Thank you for being generous with your talent. I can't design anything on my own, it seems, but love the patterns you have shared!

Thank youI used a variety of worsted weight. Red Heart Super Saver in Black...I had a lot of it and wanted to get rid of it. It worked out well because since it is so stiff and scratchy, it makes the basket stiff and sturdy.

The dark grey is Vanna's Choice in Charcoal The next shade of grey is Caron Simply Soft in Heather greyThe next grey is Lion Brand Wool Ease in grey but I can't remember the exact name of the color

The white is not a white, white, but more like an antique shade of white. I think it was Bernat Satin (not sure about that)

The shade next to white is a cream color Caron Simply Soft (this is a thinner worsted so I held 5 strands together)

The light yellow is Bernat (not sure about the exact name)Can't remember the medium yellowThe last shade of yellow is Vanna's Choice in Mustard

Liz,I've seen a variety of baskets, but this one is especially neat... love your color combination, too. Thank you for sharing the pattern for how to make it too. Your blog is wonderful and I'm always happy when I see that you have a new post... so many great things to inspire here...

Thank you so much and you're welcome. I used at least 2 skeins of black. The other colors I used maybe one skein. I held 4 strands together by balling up 3 and using the rest of the skein, and then holding the 4 strands...if that makes any sense. I hope you like the finished product:D

Sorry about that. I didn't explain myself very well. Since I was only working with one skein of each of the colors (except the black), I had to make 3 balls from the skein so I would have 4 strands to work with. I just estimated how much I would need for each ball. Since you are only working two rows per color, the balls will not have to be huge.I hope this helps. Let me know if I need to make myself clear:D

Ah, I had never heard the term "ball up" before; I've always just said, "Roll into balls" -- learn something new every day! Thank you so much for posting your pattern. I will make one for a friend's Christmas present.

I ran across your ombre basket that someone had pinned on Pinterest which lead me to your blog. I love so many of your projects and patterns. Thank you very much for share your creative designs. I am definitely a fan and follower.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this basket and want to make one for myself!!! I downside to this is I cant read patterns and didnt know if you could make a video showing how you did it. I am a visual learner, reading patterns has always been a struggle :( Didnt know if you could????? If not then I didnt understand what you meany by when you said for example: " I had to make 3 balls from the skein so I would have 4 strands to work with."

Thanks so much...I would love to help you out. Right now I just don't have time to make a video. Whenever you have a big skein and want to double or triple or quadruple it like I did here, all you have to do is make 3 balls from the one skein. You'll have the original skein end, then three separate ends to hold together, making 4 ends. Hope this helps.

FYI, I wondered how much yarn it would take so that I can make a couple of others in the near future. By my measurements, I used maybe 60 grams each of the five body colors I chose (various worsted acrylics), and probably twice that of the black for the bottom. I made 15-20 gram balls of each color, had some leftover, and had to add onto some.

that is great color work, Liz. I think also the shape is so appealing. The whole thing just kind of POPS! right out at you and says NOTICE ME! While it would be lovely in other colors, the ones you picked are favorites of mine. Nice work and thank you for generously sharing........Liz (I am Liz, too)

I'd love to make one for myself! This is gorgeous!But I don't understand what you mean by "hold 4 strands together"Does that mean you cut each color to make 4 strands and that's how you crochet?I am sorry but I am a novice here. Thank you!

I think I'm going to add a couple rounds to the base for a larger basket. If I work in 3 more rounds, up to a 10hdc spacing... Could you help a novice adjust the spacing for the handles? I'm also using an "N" hook, working out fine.

Question. When I've made bags before, I found they needed to be lined with fabric if I wanted to carry anything [like a couple books] in them. Is that true for this bag, or does knitting with four strands (I usually use one or two] help with this? Do you find that the handles stretch out? I'm trying to think if there would be a way to stick something in there to reinforce it, or if that's even necessary.

I love this basket. Thank you so much for sharing. I am fairly new to crocheting and would like to try this, however I would like to try and make it slightly larger. Would I just increase the rounds in order to do this?

Liz congratulations on you new Job and on this wonderfull piece of art.Im a fan already, justfor seeing this in my first visit to your blog.I would like to know , what camera have you used for such good pictures? Thank you, and i´ll be following you from Brazil

Thank you. I'm so glad you found me. I hope you find something here that you would like to create. About the camera...I use a Nikon D3100.Taking good photos all depend on lighting. Just use natural light and almost any camera will give you good results.

Wow! Thank you so much for this pattern! I just stumbled on your website and cannot wait to pull out some yarn and get started on this! Your color choices for this bag are wonderful! I have been wanting a project bag/basket - and this is going to be PERFECT! ;O) Thank you for your generosity in sharing!!!!!

I am having somechallengers and hoping you can help me. 1) the basket seems wobbly. Did you crochet tightly? 2) I can't seem to get the stripes to line up. Ever two rows looks like there's a step down to the same color... If you know what I mean. What am I doing wrong?3) finally, would you explain where exactly to put the needle for the handles? I'm very confused. Thanks so much!

So sorry I didn't get back to you before now. I held 4 worsted weight strands together and crocheted tightly. I do know what you mean about the stair steps. To prevent this you have to join each round and finish off when you change colors. When you are working the handles go under the entire chain, not into each chain. Hope this helps,Liz

Would it be at all possible for someone who has made this basket to post a video. I just need some help understanding where to go with all this. I'm brand spanking new to crocheting but I really love this basket. I just dont know how to interpret the lingo correctly

I'm so glad you love the basket. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do a video...working full time with a 4 year old prevents that:DI would recommend practicing another project first...that may be a little easier like a scarf or cowl, then try to follow this pattern. If you learn what the abbreviations mean, you can tackle pretty much anything. Liz

Just found this basket! So pretty! I'm having trouble at the very beginning fitting 7hdc into the third ch ... which is tecnically the first chain right? any suggestions or tips on something I'm not reading right??

Yeah technically the first chain. Don't forget that the base of this pattern is worked in the round, so start to turn (rotate) your work to fit in all 7 hdc's into that chain. You can push the hdc's you have done back a bit (squish them up) then spread them out when u are done with that round....or for the last couple of hdc's change to a smaller hook to pull them through the tight space. I'm just finishing my basket now!

You're right. Make sure your chains are not too tight. That could be the problem. I make my slip knot by just twisting the yarn around the hook to get started, so my first chain is loose and open. I pull the beginning tail tight to close. I know that sounded confusing so just make sure your chains are loose enough.

I love this basket! I've seen it all over Pinterest and finally decided to make one...Imagine my excitement when I saw that not only is the pattern free but there is no "clause of doom" attached to it! You are very talented and exactly the type of designer that I am proud to support. If it's alright with you I'll love to mention you and some of your creations on my blog. Keep up the fabulous work! =)

Wow - popular post and I'm commenter no. 101! I love, love, love your basket - the ombre part and the crochet part makes it so beautiful! I have this linked to my crochet post too today, for inspiration!

If you don't want to make separate balls, just pull each end of each skein...that should be 4...if you are using 2 skeins. If not, if you have one skein of each color then make separate balls. It doesn't take a lot.

Hello! Thank you for the pattern to this beautiful basket!!I have a question though in the first part of the pattern it says 7 hdc in 3rd ch from hook. I use the a magic ring because it works better for me so I put 7 hdc in the magic ring and kept following the rest of the pattern but I don't get the same amount of hdc at the end of each round as the pattern says. Did you meant to say put 8 hdc in 3rd ch from hook? because I'm always off by one.

I love your pattern and find it easily adaptable to different sizes and different types of yarn as long as your “principles” are followed!! I used 2 strands of Lion’s Hometown USA and a Size L hook. I ended my bottom at Round 5 (40 hdc and about 6” across) and then jumped to Round 10 for the transition round. I did 7 rounds of sc for sides of about 3.5” and then did the two rows for the handles. I decided to make my handle 10 chains, but skipped 6 sc because when I skipped an equal number to the chains it was too tight. To figure the spacing for the handles, I doubled the skipped sc (2 x 6=12) and subtracted 12 from 40 (28) and then divided 28 by 4=7. Handle round 1 would read: 7 sc, 10ch, skip 6, 14 sc, 10 ch, skip 6, 7sc. For the second round of the handle, it didn’t work for me to sc in the sc’s below the space, so I sc into the chains of the handle and it worked. Hope this helps those who want to make your baskets bigger or smaller! This basket is going to a friend recovering from surgery with a plant in it! I don’t know how to post a picture, but if you want to send me an email, I can attach it. Thanks again!!

I just love this basket. I haven't made it yet, but I hope that it's OK that I linked to in on my blog, as I needed an example of a beautiful basket pattern in my post for my not-so-beautiful crocheted basket! (You can see it here, if you might be interested -- http://oldsweetsong.blogspot.com/2014/02/for-love-of-old-t-shirts-crocheted.html) Thanks so much!

My daughter-in-law saw this and asked me if I could make it ... I said 'I'll try" ... it was so fun ... but I misread the directions and did it in hdc all the way ... to see a picture of it go to - http://lakiba.tumblr.com/

To Tiara, t shirt yarn should work wonderfully. I'm lucky enough to have double worsted cotton yarn at my disposal. I would need to use 2 strands to equal what the pattern calls for. T shirt yarn would be about the same, depending on how wide the strips were cut to. The worse that could happen is the size of the basket is different. I'm adding this to my ever growing lists of projects.

Hey. I love this and can not wait to make it. I am wanting to find out what is the total yardage you used to make this basket with the 9 colors. Also, did you use 4 balls of yarn for each color or how did you do the 4 strands? Hope that does not sound too dumb I am just trying to figure out how much yarn I need to make this basket. Thank you so much for your time. Jennie

I did an image search for crocheted baskets and your beautiful basket popped off the page. You used the colors of my living room. I'll be making it in the next couple of weeks. I received my MSW in '97, at middle age, and worked in hospice which I loved. Thank you for your basket and generosity with the instructions. I'll be making one or two for my toddler grandchild, too. Thanks for choosing social work; I hope you enjoy your career.

This bag is beautiful and I'm thrilled that you shared!!I'm hosting bunko soon and my theme is "50 shades of gray" But I'm hoping to give it a "clean" twist. I'd love to try this pattern for one of my prizes using "50 shades of gray" Zpagetti (tshirt yarn) to make BIG basket (I think that will give it both size and stiffness)Wish me luck! Thanks for sharing!!!

Hi, I'm a beginner crocheter and have got to about row 15. I'm sure I have followed your pattern correctly, I have a circular base and now my bag is taking a bowl shape. Could you tell me if I'm on the right track or have I made a mistake. Wish I could send you a picture. Hope I hear from you because I think your bag is fabulous. Cheers, Louise

I just finished this basket and the recipient is thrilled! My basket did turn out more round than oval, not sure if it was supposed to? And I was not sure how to change colors - i just continued crocheting but I am thinking maybe I was supposed to end and begin a new color? Thanks the next one will be mine :)

I just finished this and am very pleased with the results! To anyone who's concerned that their basket is round, rather than oval looking as in the pictures, the bottom is supposed to be round. It's when you grasp it by the handles that it takes on an oval shape.

And for anyone confused about how to your yarns into 4 equal balls, try this: weigh your skein on a kitchen scale. Divide the weight by 4 - that'll be your target weight. Start rolling your first ball, weigh it, and when you get to the target weight, snip it off and start the next. Makes it so easy!

I printed the pattern for future reference and found it lacking in clarity-not the pattern but the tiny print and light colouration of it. Is there a way of darkening the print? If you have any ideas please email me at srenaud508@gmail.com. Thank you.

Some friends and I are making this project together, bought our yarn and meeting in a few days. FUN.I have crocheted the bottom with some scrap yarn and finally figured out where the ridge is for the basket to go up on the sides. ( I am a knitter with not too much crocheting experience.)My confusion now is with the bottom. It is octagonal and not really round. All the increases being in the same place. Will it round out as you go up the sides? Thanks for the help.